Alpha Luna

3. You have got to be kidding me

Kayleigh groaned as she felt the sun's rays hit her face. "Mom, why did you open the curtains?" She asked, hugging the pillow tighter, unwilling to wake.

As she breathed in, the sweet and charming scent of strawberries filled her nostrils and she moaned in pleasure. Her eyes opened slightly and it took her more time than she would have liked to admit to notice that the curtain in the room was pink. She hated pink. She was on her feet the next moment fighting against the dizziness while evaluating her surroundings. Her head, which was already throbbing softly from her hasty getup, throbbed harder. A throb which had everything to do with the fact that she had allowed herself to get kidn*pped.

When the throb became bearable, she took another good look at her surroundings. She was in a large white room. It had pink curtains and sheets. A color crystal chandelier, an oak wardrobe, a large flat screen TV with a DVD, a make-up mirror setup, a full-length mirror, a beautiful pink desk with matching seat, and a bookshelf with only about twelve books on it. The bed was fluffy with lots of pink pillows of different shapes and sizes.

This was any sane girl's dream bedroom paradise, but Kayleigh Murray was not just any girl and at the moment, she was not feeling sane, so instead of acting like a normal girl at the right of a pretty room, she ugh-ed in half disgust and half amusement.

She tried to think back on how she had gotten there. She grabbed her hair and yanked softly in frustration when her mind remained blank and it seemed to release her memories from their depths.

She had closed that day feeling more than a little bit angry at her boss. Well, technically, her boss’ boss’ boss, but that changed nothing. He had showed up, piqued her interest and then disappeared into thin air. Forget that the day before, she had waited in his office like he had told her to, only to feel the height of embarrassment when Abbigail Gordon had come in to tell her, “Mr. Wesley will be unavailable today and has asked me to review your work.” And she had also hated herself for noticing the light glint in Abbigail’s eyes like she knew something Kayleigh didn’t.

She had waited again that day, not that she would admit it to anyone but herself, but she had waited hoping he would come but he had not shown up, the i***t. Piqued her interest and left her high and dry.

Assh*le. She had thought as she pressed the button to power up the engine but it gave a small choke and then died.

She had paused, taken a deep breath, and pressed the button again. It had rewarded her with something that sounded like a mocking chuckle before it died. At that point, she had started to pray to Freya that she would not have to take the bus home. Apart from the fact that she had never done it before, she was not big on the idea of having to associate with more people. She was already out of her social juice plus reserve just getting through work. She disliked people who weren’t her mom.

Except Skylar Wesley.

The waywardness of her thought had had her banging on the steering before she climbed out of the car, pulled up her phone to locate the nearest station, and started to walk. She was barely half way there when she felt people following her. At first she had discarded it as post-traumatic stress (it wouldn’t have been the first time she thought she was being stalked) but she had made two right turns and they had followed. Standard test.

Instead of yelling or breaking into a run, she had rounded a corner ready to beat the s**t out of them and unleash some of her frustration, but the moment she turned and noticed their glowing eyes, she knew she was in deep sh*t.

Werewolves.

Her stomach had knotted as bile rose in her throat. Memories she would rather not recall had resurfaced in an almost blinding flash. Nausea had risen and her eyes darted around. She had expected two, maybe three men and she could handle that much even if they were werewolves, but there were about seven men and they all looked twice her size and that was saying something considering she was 5”7.

Her first punch had thrown the man off his guard but it had also caused pain to radiate through her fists. Immortals and their d*mn density. She had just managed to tackle the second man when a hand came around her throat and a napkin that had enough chloroform to bring down a horse, over her nose.

She would have cried if she was not so against showing weakness. She was being kidn*pped by werewolves. It was the stuff of her nightmares. But just before her eyes closed and she went limp, she heard an inhuman growl and then the men had started to drop like flies.

"Doesn't explain how I got here." She said to herself when she came back to the present, rubbing her still sore knuckles.

But she knew she had been kidn*pped. Even though it wouldn't be the first time, she was still transfixed, wondering who would want to kidnap her. Nobody who had any form of interest in her knew where she lived. She looked around the room and her face stopped at the door to her right. She went to it just to get confirmation that she had indeed been kidn*pped, but to her surprise, it opened easily.

Well then, she sighed and stepped out.

She found herself in a long hallway and looked to the two sides. No-one. That was a first. Taking a deep breath, she walked to the left as quietly as she could and fought back a sigh of relief when she reached a staircase. She sucked in a breath at the beauty of it. The stairs were a beautiful and rare shade of golden brown. The type that made you wonder if you were in a fairytale or a mafia house. The banisters looked like polished silver laced with gold. She acknowledged that whoever owned the place had to be swimming in wealth.

When she was done in the fantasy world, she came back to earth and continued her quiet walk down the stairs. She stopped abruptly when she heard giggles. Were those girls? Taking a few more steps down, she was close enough to see a group of about 7 girls, all looking her age sitting in an extravagant living room. They seemed deeply into whatever it was they were talking about and that was perfectly alright with her.

She started to sneak back up hoping to get back to the room and escape through the window, but her attempts were cut short when she missed a stair and, as a result, slipped down a few stairs until she caught the railing to break her fall.

By the time her heartbeat and breathing were back to normal, she looked up to see a beautiful, petite blonde staring at her.

"Hi," the girl said with a smile and, for some sick, stupid reason, Kayleigh found herself smiling back.

"Hello" Kayleigh replied because, for one, the girl looked harmless and, she was sure she could handle more than 12 girls any time of the day without breaking a sweet.

"Are you okay?" The girl sounded genuinely worried, bringing a light frown to Kayleigh's forehead.

"I think so." She shrugged and they stared at each other in an awkward silence.

"I'm sorry. It's just that it's been so long since someone like you came here.” The girl looked like she would be cast as Cinderella. All soft delicate features and graceful steps as she climbed up toward Kayleigh.

"Someone like me?" Kayleigh asked and the girl shook her head.

"Never Mind. I'm Cherry, by the way." The girl offered.

"Kayleigh," she answered, simply not really interested in the conversation. She had more pressing issues, ergo, why she was there.

"How did I get here?" She asked and Cherry turned to her as if thinking of what to say.

"My brother brought you here", she answered after a while and with a resigned sigh.

"Your what?!" What was her business with this girl’s brother?

"He'll be back soon. He just went out for a while.'' Cherry continued, as if not hearing Kayleigh's wonder.

"Why did he bring me here?" Kayleigh questioned.

"You'd better ask him when he comes" Cherry said, looking like she was hiding something, but Kayleigh left it anyway because she was going to get full answers from 'her brother'.

“How about you come hang with us for a while. I am sure it is boring back in your room. The arrangements were made in something of haste.”

“I’d rather not.” Kayleigh’s tone was sharp but Cherry ignored it without so much as a change in her expression.

“But then how would you know if he came back? He could just leave again.” That convinced her to walk down the stairs with Cherry.

All the girls were looking in their direction when they reached the foot of the stairs. And even though Kayleigh practically grew up being the center of attention, there was something in their stare that made her want to cringe.

"Kayleigh, these are, Jenn, Lena, Martha and Margaret, Susan, Kayla and Jo. Ladies, Kayleigh." Cherry introduced.

"Hey.....hi......what’s up......how are you doing?" The girls said in a chorus of words and Kayleigh waved reluctantly. They were creeping the life out of her with their stare.

"I can't believe this. It's so great to see you. We've been waiting years for you", The person who Kayleigh assumed to be Jenn said, looking like she would be happy to die right then.

“Wait for what exactly?" Kayleigh asked, her brows furrowed in confusion and watched Cherry glare at Jenn, who looked down at her hands in embarrassment.

"It’s nothing." Jenn corrected quietly and Kayleigh narrowed her eyes at her before shrugging. She'd get answers from Cherry's "brother" soon enough.

About 10 minutes later, when Kayleigh was just about ready to pull out her hair from all the staring at the chatter, there was a noise indicating someone opening a door.

"Seems my brother's back."

"Finally. I have to get the hell out of here soon or my mother will destroy me." She stood up and headed for the door.

"We'll just give you two some privacy." Cherry stood up and so did everyone else. Then they went in the direction of what Kayleigh was sure would be a back door.

"You're awake" The person who just came in stated......That voice. Her head whipped around to meet the dark brown eyes of Skyler Wesley.

"You?!" She frowned.